


a grave of dreams

by springdoves



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Nightmares, i hope u enjoy :), major spoilers for episode 18 agony of a witch !!!, my first ever published notes app fanfic, prelude to a potential redemption arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26167153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springdoves/pseuds/springdoves
Summary: lilith clawthorne, after the defeat of the owl lady.title taken from maya angelou's poem "caged bird."
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne
Kudos: 23





	a grave of dreams

lilith sits on the windowsill in her room, one leg perched on the ledge and the other dangling above the floor. all in all, she had a very successful day—capturing edalyn, scaring off the human girl, proving her worth to the coven—but her heart feels unusually heavy, burduned by the knowledge that in her final moments of consciousness edalyn had learned the truth.

she pulls her raven black hair into a messy bun and pushes the remaining strands out of her face. lilith usually strives for perfection, but she figures after such a job well done, she deserves a bit of rest. still, she can't force herself to sleep. her mind races, and it bothers her to no end. she should be happy, reveling in her resounding victory against the now-powerless leader of the anti-coven movement, but she just feels hollow. that's when the room starts to shake.

pained shrieks snap lilith out of her trance, and she flops back onto her bed, defeated. edalyn hasn't stopped shouting since they sat her in the cellar beneath the rest of the castle. it should mean something that her own sister is being held in a dingy cell notorious for taming the most volatile of beasts. she feels nothing. this is what she's worked for her entire life. she can't have superficial blood relations messing with her perfect situation. in this case, it means forcing herself to sleep regardless of whatever edalyn is up to downstairs.

lilith drifts off after a few minutes of silence and is met with her sister, a teenager, sound asleep in her bed. ginger hair frames her delicate face, so peaceful and unaffected. she hears a door creak closed behind her and against her will, takes several quiet steps toward the bed. lilith wants to stop, to look away, but her body betrays her. her hands perform the familiar motions and she realizes—she's lost count of how many people she's cursed. she can't even recall the myriad of times she's cornered someone and bestowed upon them another hex only she can undo. it's standard practice in the coven (some lower ranking members even compete to see how many witches they can curse in a given period of time), and only now can she realize the impact it's had on these people.

through her dream, lilith can hear edalyn's muffled screams from below, and she tries desperately to stop her hands, to no avail. the circle of pure magical energy crackles on her fingertips and she's just about to force it onto the girl below her when this younger edalyn opens her eyes and sits up. once she processes what lilith is about to do, tears well up in her eyes.

"why did you do it?"

lilith stumbles back, regaining control of her limbs. "i...it was the right thing to do." her voice is stable, but she doesn't quite believe herself anymore.

the walls of the room collapse around her and the floor drops out, leaving just her and the tiny ginger child alone in an empty void. lilith tries her hardest to pull her gaze away from the sobbing girl, but she can't stop watching. she did this. she caused all of this pain. but it was right, wasn't it? it was for the coven. everything was for the coven.

the younger eda begins screaming as feathers sprout from her hair, her fingernails elongating into sharp claws. lilith is frozen, paralyzed by fear as she watches her sweet younger sister transform into a terrible monster. the beasts, present and past, roar in unison. 

edalyn was labeled an enemy of the state due to her refusal to join a coven. she claimed they were used only to suppress the raw power of witches and to box them into careers—lilith knew she was right. as a member of the emperor's coven, she was trusted with the truth, that the covens were in fact a method to keep belos in power and that the "honoring the titan" doctrine spread to the public was a lie made up to pacify any objections they might have. edalyn had never really bought the coven idea from the start, but she had been set on joining the emperor's coven with lilith for as long as she could remember. 

the sisters were recommended to the coven's internship program around edalyn's twelfth birthday (she always had been the prodigy of the two), but only a few weeks into the program, lilith was pulled away for a conference with the program leaders. it was explained to her that her sister was a danger to the balance of society and that if lilith was to find a way to disarm her, she would be guaranteed a spot in the coven once she graduated from hexside. who would resist that sort of offer?

another scream pierces the dark and lilith wakes up in a cold sweat, hyperventilating.

she won't sleep any more tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! please leave kudos or a comment if you enjoyed (comments are preferred, but kudos are appreciated)! i have yet to post any more owl house fanfiction, but i do have several published fics for other fandoms if you'd like to check them out. if the story doesn't end up following the path i hope it will, i do plan on writing a multi-chapter fic based on my theories. if you enjoyed this work, i post more owl house content on my twitter, @lilyclawthorne. once again, thank you for reading, and have a nice day!!


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